I will remember both Ann and Anne

Sally CowanKeeping You In Stitches

Published Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Both Anne Heymen and Ann Hyman are mine.

I was deeply disturbed to find out that Ann Hyman from the Florida Times-Union died May 19. She was often referred to as "the other Anne Heymen." How strange is it that both papers had a woman writer with the same name? I can't tell you how important both of these women were in making me who I am today.

Back in 1971, Ann Hyman from the TU called and asked if she could come to my house and write a column about me and my sewing. Let me quote parts of the article she wrote so long ago (it was published on July 12, 1971):

"Miss Corbett (unmarried at that time) believes the test of a dressmaker is her clothing. She was wearing a patchwork skirt of scraps from the 20 skirts and tops she made for the Fountain of Youth. A typical seamstress, she can't bear to throw anything away, but less typically, she uses scraps well.

"Sally is unhappy if people think her clothes are store-bought, since she considers mass workmanship uniformly poor. Sally works from her home, a charming little three-room cottage of her own design, which has the same special touches as her clothes -- painted saltbox and scales, a red mailbox out front, a pegboard with oodles of spools impaled on it. Never a home ec major, she wears her credentials on her back, and if a customer appears startled by her youth, Sally hastens to assure her, "I have had years and years of experience."

The heading for the article was "Sally Corbett's Work Keeps Her in Stitches."

And as they say, the rest is history.

That is how my column acquired its name.

But it didn't end there. And herein is where our Anne Heymen comes into play. Yes, I had a column, I had a title, but I had nowhere to publish it. I went to our Anne one day and suggested that The St. Augustine Record needed a sewing column. She was interested, and so she went to the publisher A.H. "Hoopie" Tebault, and ran the idea by him. I don't know how thrilled he was, but he gave it a chance.

Now I had a column, a title and a place to publish it. It ran in the paper for six weeks and it has been in the paper ever since. Because of this, the column became syndicated through McNaught Syndicate out of New York.

Because of this, the columns turned into books, and because of this, the PBS TV show was created, also called Keeping You In Stitches. And because of all the above, I have been the keynote speaker at many sewing events throughout the country.

All this started with our Ann(e)s. I can't thank both of them enough. I write this column in memory of Ann Hyman and in honor of Anne Heymen. Thanks for believing in me.